How Life Works

 What distinguishes top bodybuilders from the average is the extent to which they pump up immediately from their exercises — but most people have that ability to respond to a very visible extent. When I used to conduct the “Scientific Weight-training” class at the Boston YMCA in 1974, it was to test if the assertions of Arthur Jones and his Nautilus principles were true, and the results of his “Colorado Study” could be duplicated — and the surprising thing was that every person from young to old, well-trained or not, displayed a d   rastic transformation from the beginning of a six-week period to the end — but at the end, they had learned how to effect that radical transformation in a single workout.

In that manner, it was obvious that the effects of a bodybuilding workout could be manifested immediately — and not only after six months or a year. One knows from the very first workout that it is having that very detectable and obvious effect. That is why no competitive bodybuilder WILL NOT pump up before going onstage — and most do so using only light or even no weights at all, but obviously know how to contract their muscles without those aids. That can even be a modality of exercise — as was promoted by people calling it “dynamic tension,” or simply, posing (postures). The problem with many modern bodybuilders, is that they are always contracted, and never allow anybody to see them relaxed — both on and off the stage.

Muscles can either do one of two things — contract or relax — but some disciplines think that muscles can only contract, or only relax — rather than it is the alternation (change) in muscular states that is the magical power. That is also the health benefit — of directing the flow (circulation) to those areas specifically exercised, and not as some “experts” claim, that one cannot develop muscles specifically, but that the heart will pump the blood equally to all tissues indiscriminately. That is obviously not true or many people would not exhibit the grossly disproportionate development of their upper bodies to their less exercised lower bodies, and vice-versa. Such experts will tell you that there is no such thing as “spot-reducing,” so that the only thing one can do is exercise the heart harder and lose weight equally throughout the body — whether one wants to do that or not.

Unfortunately, that is what passes for bro-“science” — by those who have never tested anything themselves and are incapable of distinguishing any truth in any matter. They simply repeat unquestioningly, what some self-proclaimed authority tells them is the truth — and that is why it is so important to run the test themselves and see if those results can be duplicated. That is what science is — what anybody can test to be true, and not simply which authorities are to be unquestioned and unchallenged. That is not science but merely authoritarianism.

Granted, many people exercising improperly and unproductively will not show any obvious signs of change for months, if not years, and will never begin to question all they believe that has led them astray. Journalists and media celebrities are particularly prone to go along with the crowd and popular no matter how untrue it might be. So-called health practitioners rely on this faith and instruct never to believe in what one’s own body and senses are telling them — even to the bitter end — but that is largely the reality we live in, and why each has their own brain, muscles, intelligence: to distinguish these differences immediately.

Of course if one is doing nothing productively, that will show too. But staying the course for six months, a year, decades, will not miraculously manifest at some point in the future. Along the way will be measurable changes and landmarks that one is proceeding in the right course. That’s how life works.

High-Intensity Training Frequency

 A once a week session of high-intensity exercise is the standard for what most people will thrive on.

The problem for most is dealing with the extreme muscle soreness from only once a week workouts because if one does nothing between those once a week high intensity workouts, the recovery takes longer, and so the key was discovering how one can recover from those once a week high-intensity workouts, and the fortunate discovery I made was when in my 40s at the height of Nautilus and high-intensity training, I was diverted onto exercising with no equipment for a while, and then when asked to instruct disabled, senior, and even terminal people on recovering from their conditions -- recognized the unappreciated points that Arthur Jones also emphasized but was ignored.

And that was the importance of extending the range of motion as an essential focus of the movement -- because those extremes, provide their own resistance. His claim was that the Nautilus machines provided variable resistance throughout the full range of movement -- but adding resistance, decreases the range of movement. That is to observe that increasing the weight (resistance) always decreases the range that is moved -- and that the real value, was moving from 0 to 100% contraction -- because that difference is the rate of flow, and the principle of fluid dynamics. That's how the heart works in pushing the blood out towards the extremities.

But the greater benefit is not in making the heart work harder (resulting in enlarged, weakened hearts that is the bane of strength athletes), but in using the skeletal (voluntary) muscles of the body to compress (contract) the blood back towards the heart -- and that is why people who exercise that function over every other consideration including running, jumping, lifting weights, optimize their health to those extremities that are well-known for poor circulation and the first places to fail in older people as the dementias, arthritis, venous insufficiency, edema, lymphedema, lipedema, etc.

Contraction is compression -- and why compression clothing works in people with notoriously poor circulation. It reduces the inflammation (swelling) just as it reliably does in healing injuries, as well as the recovery from intense workouts which are a controlled form of injury. That is to note that one must break down to make room and necessity for the new -- as the muscle cell releases energy and produces waste products. However, in modern sedentary lives, it is quite possible that one does not provide any muscle contractions other than what they actually think to effect (exercise), so that the glaring weakness becomes the circulation to the head, hands and feet -- which then become the characteristic markers of deterioration in the elderly and those in poor condition. That's actually where the primary focus should be -- over the biceps and abdominals -- which are not the primary expressors of human performance.

Again, it is because people are distracted from the essential and significant, to the trivial and decorative -- because the problem of the old, weak and disfunctioning, is not that one can no longer squat with 200 lbs -- but they cannot squat at all, which includes many bodybuilders and formerly great athletes. Increasing the weight to 300 lbs is not going to recover that capability -- much less doing it more frequently. That's just wishful thinking.

Making Time

The value of exercise is that movement causes an increased circulatory effect at the joint actually moved — because a contraction causes compression of the residual fluid in the tissues which is inflammation — the source of all disease and aging. When those toxins are compressed out of the tissues, new blood and nutrients can enter — which produces health and growth. That is the reason why muscular contractions (exercise) are so beneficial — and not just for burning off (wasting) as many calories possible so one can eat more.

There is no problem in sitting or lying to do those exercises, because if when thinks about it, many movements can be done sitting or lying — however, all those considerations that people equate with exercise are also not important, like working up a sweat or raising one’s heart beat. There is no exercise or activity that will not raise the heart rate at least to the 60% of the theoretical maximum heart rate, which is the imminent danger of failure. However, because of the competitive nature in most thinking, many interpret the maximum heart rate to be the new minimum — while all the other skeletal/voluntary muscles remain as dormant as possible — often referred to as “cardio” — in that the only muscle contraction, is made faster, while the voluntary muscles continue to be unactivated as much as possible.

The real need is not for the heart to work increasingly harder — but for the skeletal/voluntary muscles to optimize those circulatory pathways in contracting at the most important organs of the body — which is the head, hands and feet — above all else, and don’t worry about the biceps and the six-pack. If the brain operating at its greatest capacity thinks that is what is necessary, then that is what it will do but usually it is far down the list of most important things to do, enable and optimize. It will choose to prioritize the blood flow to the brain — foremost, because that is the critical path of neuromuscular functioning. That is why humans have the largest brain in the animal kingdom, and with that, they have a grip that allows them to make tools, and unique feet that allows them upright locomotion — so they can see, hear, smell, taste the world around them more advantageously.

At least, that is what humans used to do, and the challenges they evolved for — which are almost unrecognizable in contemporary life. In fact, those are the areas most telling and indicative of the state of health — the pencil/turkey neck, the swollen hands and feet that haven’t been articulated in ages — which is the inflammation that exacerbates in the downward spiral of aging and disease. Those are the markers of those aging badly.

There is nothing inherently wrong with sitting or lying — or prohibitive for any exercise program. One simply moves what is normally never moved — but should have the highest priority and attention, and the bonus is that because a muscle contracts from its furthest insertion activated back to the origin — which then is inserted into the underlying proximal (supportive) muscle, it is quite possible with that understanding, to exercise all the muscles of the body beginning from those insertions at the extremities. But you see, modern life no longer requires those movements at those most critical organs and features of the body.

What that is doing is driving all that inflammation out of the tissues back towards the purifying/recycling organs at the center of the body — which is really the whole point — and nothing else. That creates the conditions for optimal functioning and health — and everything else, is an added bonus. That person is operating on all cylinders — and looks it.

Yoga is done while lying, and most of the weight-lifting machines are done seated — as well as the bicycles. The problem with the treadmills is that there is very little foot articulation, and virtually none at the wrists and head — which means that the circulation is being diverted to where there is actual movement, which is at the hip joint — but not to the greatest range of that possibility, and so many report feeling that the blood has pooled even more in their feet from their walk — and hands, even though their heart rate has increased.

That shouldn’t be the objective and concern, because while lying in a hospital bed and presumably dying, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what is most important in life to empower — and that would be first the brain, then the hands, and then the feet — and in doing that and really understanding the mind/body connection and the meaning of that, one can rethink what it means to survive and then function at one’s highest level.

With that understanding, one can exercise beneficially anytime, anywhere, under any conditions, with or without any equipment — making do and the most with what one has — or think of one reason after another, for why one can’t. That is the difference between those who do — and those who can’t. Circumstances will never be perfect enough to do what they need to do — and make the impossible seem more improbable with each attempt (repetition). Life is a practice — and that is how people become better at what they do, and are.